"The biggest problem you have," said Cathy Mincberg, president of the Center for Reform of School Systems, "[is] how to deal with sunshine."

Mincberg said the state's open records laws will weigh heavily on candidates' eagerness to apply for Duval's position — particularly candidates with good relationships with their current school boards.

"They do not get up and apply for places where they are going to be humiliated," Mincberg said. "Having your name out there is a humiliation because it says to your own board that, 'I'm thinking about leaving you.' "

School Board Chairwoman Betty Burney said the board will discuss with its attorney when key details, like candidate names, fall under the open records laws.

The board will be replacing Superintendent Ed Pratt-Dannals at the end of his contract Dec. 31. It hopes to have a replacement by the time he leaves.

Mincberg's session with the board touched on a myriad topics, from how to evaluate search firms to whether to include performance pay for the new superintendent.

Burney is a paid consultant for the organization. She said she won't make money off the center's involvement in this process.

School Board member Becki Couch asked Mincberg if upcoming changes to the state's school grading system, which are expected to yield more D and F schools, would affect the district's ability to find a good candidate. Mincberg said it's actually good timing to find a new leader because the new superintendent won't be held responsible for the drop in school grades.

The nonprofit head also suggested that the board take time to do some extra research into any search firm it is considering. It could learn a great deal by having the district's staff call three of the previous districts a search firm has worked for, Mincberg said.

The board also should request a process that allows interviews of superintendent candidates to go beyond just one question from each board member. Talking in depth with the candidates is really valuable, she said.

"Look at this as a marriage; it really is," Mincberg said.

Board members said the board's previous superintendent search, which resulted in the hire of Joseph Wise, didn't feature the in-depth process Mincberg suggested.

The board also should be prepared to talk with the public about whether the new superintendent's contract should feature pay-for-performance criteria, the trainer said, especially if the district's teachers operate under some sort of a pay-for-performance plan.

Mincberg applauded the district for its plan to include the public in the search and volunteered herself as a reference.

I think people need to read a little better before they comment. When I saw the title of the article I immediately thought the same as apparantly everyone else has said about the sunshine law. But after reading the article it appears to me that what she is saying is that because of the open records laws (sunshine laws) many highly qualified currently employeed people would be hesitant to apply because they would hate for their current employer to find out that they were looking for another job. But, because of the laws, their names would be plastered all over the place and their current employer might not like that. How many of the people commenting about ---"The biggest problem you have is sunshine." would tell their current employer when they go interview for another job. I doubt any of you would. I wouldn't and if I had an employee that I knew was interviewing for a new job, I probably wouldn't be too happy.

Betty Burney is connected with the Center for Reform of School Systems AND both she and the Center for Reform of School Systems are connected with the Broad Foundation? That spells big trouble for Duval County public Schools! Citizens of Jacksonville need to do some research on the Broad Foundation and the superintendents they have trained. We do not need the turmoil they bring with them in this district. Nor do we need a short term superintendent. Broad training encourages their "trainees" to come in and shake up their district immediately. We had that with Joey Wise. It didn't help. Broad Foundation also supports privatizing public education. The Times-Union will be remiss if they don't do some serious research and reporting on this situation, but if they don't, here are some links for T-U readers to use. Check it out!

Betty needs to go to begin with as do all of the others on the board. We need new people and not career politicians. Lets take this board and everything else back to the basics. Of actually working for the people in this city.

The board must not know what a good superintendent is, or how to verify the records of a candidate, if they need a consultant. Prolonged discussions with the candidates leads to hiring the candidate that talks the best. The only rational criteria is previous performance, anyone can talk a good story.

Here we have a school system arguably on the verge of collapse and the biggest problem we have is letting the people who pay for all this know what is going on. Maybe it is time to go for an elected superintendent and get away from all of these "perfessionals" who have "helped" us so much already.